Who is the beneficiary of your corporate owned life insurance? A rather simple question but one that is often misunderstood. If one were to dust off one’s corporate owned life insurance contract you would see that the owner and beneficiary of the contract is your corporation. Why? Because of tax law rules dealing with taxable … Read more
Lawyers excepted, everyone lost. That’s my conclusion after reading two recent Ontario employment cases involving hygienists and dentists. Shelley Nicholas v. Dr. Edyta Witulska DPC, 2022 ONSC 2984 A dental hygienist (“Nicholas”) was employed part-time until she resigned in 2018. She had been employed from 1991 to 2011 with Dr. Michael Veer without a contract. … Read more
Dentists have few ways to control or manage inflation. A major tool that dentists have to fight inflation is their ability to increase productivity and/or use money to buy tools that increase productivity/efficiencies. Dentists who upgrade and enhance their clinical skills may be able to bill more per hour. Dentists who buy tools such as … Read more
“Agoal without a plan is just a wish.” You have probably heard this famous quote by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, often mentioned in motivational and self-help texts. However, it is equally applicable to most areas of business, including marketing your dental practice on social media. In fact, we can take it a step further. You need … Read more
In oral healthcare, ingestion or aspiration of foreign objects are significant iatrogenic events. These mishaps are by their very nature unexpected, and successful prevention and management are key to minimizing potential adverse consequences. While relatively rare, dental literature is filled with reports of ingested or aspirated dental burs, implant components, endodontic files, amalgam fragments, crowns, … Read more
THE WHY: Owner’s story 14th Avenue Dentistry is located in the city of Markham, Ont., approximately 30 km northwest of downtown Toronto. Whether you are a resident, visitor or tourist, there is something for everyone to enjoy, see or do in this rapidly growing community. This thriving practice is owned and operated by the extraordinary … Read more
Even the best of us can lose our way in all the noise and hubbub of the day-to-day stresses. Establishing a code of commitments for the practice will help the entire team keep on track – even in stressful situations when the wheels fall off. A code of commitments is about having a preplanned game … Read more
Since the onset of the pandemic, our personal and professional lives have been turned upside down in ways we could never have imagined. In addition to adopting rigorous health and safety protocols and procedures in our practices, we also go above and beyond in our daily interactions with our patients to ensure they feel safe … Read more
Some days, the life of a dental hygienist is like running on a hamster wheel. The race of the clock, running around in circles as you frantically try to stay on time. In hygiene school, we were given three hours to provide comprehensive patient care. When we compare this to the traditional 60 minute-model given … Read more
In my personal and professional journey throughout of my life, I have discovered that giving back is the ultimate sign of true success. And in today’s world, we need to remember that we are all connected, in many ways. We are a society that makes decisions on how we feel and each individual is dealing … Read more
Q: Can you make a dental hygiene diagnosis based on pocket depths alone? A few of my fellow hygienists insist that a 5mm pocket depth is an indication of periodontitis. A: No, you can not make an accurate Dental Hygiene Diagnosis (DHD) based on pocket depths alone. Pocket depths may assist in making a diagnosis … Read more
In March 2022, the Edelman Trust Barometer provided a significant warning that eroding trust has harmed, and is likely to continue to damage, individual and public health outcomes in the post-COVID-19 era.1 More than 50 percent of those surveyed worry that science has become politicized. Fully 63 percent say that the COVID-19 pandemic has decreased … Read more
Dr. Bobby Birdi BC Perio, Vancouver and Coquitlam, BC What is one thing you know now that you wish you had known at the start of your career? I wish I had known the true power and knowledge associated with having a dental laboratory. We’ve had our own full service digital dental laboratory for the … Read more
More than half of dentists agree their practices have been less profitable in the last few years – but don’t lose hope! If your business is suffering due to the increased costs and lower patient traffic, put those thinking caps on and come up with a plan to get that profitability back up to par. … Read more
Introduction Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was first reported December 31, 2019, to the China Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO). It started in Wuhan, China, and is highly contagious. The spread was rapid, and it was declared a global emergency on January … Read more
The July 2021 Oral Health editorial was an opinion piece titled, “They Never Gave Us Hope…” It succinctly described why, regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, the inept actions of politicians, public health administrators and the media were promoting despair rather than hope.1 Fortunately, a year later, that despondency has been replaced by one of cautious optimism … Read more
Composite resins offer several advantages over dental amalgams beyond just esthetic benefits. Since composite resin restorations are retained through adhesion rather than mechanical retention, more conservative tooth preparation is encouraged – preserving natural tooth structure for future restorative margins, maintaining structural resistance of the remaining tooth, and decreasing the likelihood of damage to the pulp. … Read more
Abstract The advent of cheaper and more powerful mobile phones and tablets has made augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) much more accessible in recent years. These technologies have been used in dental education, to provide virtual models, but there have been problems with the manipulation of the models through the virtual interface. This … Read more
Introduction Dental implants remain the gold standard for the replacement of one or more missing teeth.1,2 In an edentulous arch, all the teeth are missing and rehabilitation with implants provides the patient a significant improvement in function, aesthetics and quality of life.3 Implant bars, where a bone-affixed bar supports and retains the denture instead of … Read more
Implant treatment complications related to both screw and cement-retained installation systems appear to be similar and troubling. Peri-implant disease treatments can be uncomfortable, expensive, and unpredictable.1,2 Intra-oral cementation can consistently optimize the fit of implant parts and reduce cantilevers to improve access to care,3,4 but has been plagued by complications related to residual subgingival cement … Read more